Back in the day (1986), when Elite took on this prematurely aged Capcom shooter, you would have been forgiven for thinking there was a good chance of a nigh on perfect conversion to the home micros. Vertically scrolling shoot em ups were ten a penny on the C64 and the original was no 'state of the art' cabinet. I mean, it was just River Raid with bells on, right?
At first sight and sound, it actually quite impresses. The title tune is a jaunty, militaristic romp and the graphics appear to be well drawn and colourful. The high score tune is worth leaving on for a while to bend an ear to as well. Sadly, it doesn't take long to find the flaws and end any possible enjoyment you may have been expecting. The attack waves are predictable, yet infuriating. Getting randomly rear ended by an enemy plane will never cease to grate. The collision detection is also pretty grim, penalising you for getting a pixels width too close to an enemy or enemy fire. Shooting other planes is also a frustrating affair, gunfire frequently ghosting past the oncoming enemy. Forgive me if I don't get excited about losing life after life for no reason.
So, there it is. One to try out if you're a masochist or you like a complete lack of variety, like eating beans on toast every night for tea. The original arcade game wasn't up to much anyway, but you can't help thinking more could have been done to make it fun to play for more than half an hour.
Screenshots
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